Revealed: Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid to Ronald Araujo's signing in 2018

Sergio Cabrera coached the centre-back at CA Rentistas in the 2016/17 season.

Both Madrid giants closely followed Araujo in 2018 but Barca's sporting director Ramon Planes signed Ronald for the Catalans partly on his advice, says Cabrera.

“I have a friend in Spain – Paco Ors – who comes to Uruguay and Argentina a lot. He saw him and he caught his attention. He told Ramon Planes, when he was Getafe’s sports director. I met him having a coffee in March 2018 and he asked me about him. Three months later, Planes signs for Barca and takes Ronald there,” Araujo's former coach at CA Rentistas Sergio Cabrera told Marca.

“He could have gone to Real Madrid. I have a particularly good relationship with Ramon Martínez, and in 2018 he called me to ask if Ronald Araujo was ready. It was a great responsibility for me to tell him something like that and I told him that he would need a step first, maybe in the reserve team.

“After 8 or 9 days, Barcelona signed him. But Real Madrid were behind, and I have friends who were following up for Atletico Madrid. Their destiny was to go to a big one, and Barca moved for him.”

In fact, it was Cabrera who gave then 17-year-old Araujo his first chance at the senior level in 2016.

The Uruguayan signed for Barca in the summer of 2018 for a fee of €1.7m plus €3.5m in add-ons. He's become a regular first-team player this season, featuring for Ronald Koeman's men nine times across all competitions so far.